Last June, in an interview with Adam Bryant of The Times, Laszlo Bock, the senior vice president of people operations for Google \u201d\u201d i.e., the guy in charge of hiring for one of the world\u2019s most successful companies \u201d\u201d noted that Google had determined that \u201cG.P.A.\u2019s are worthless as a criteria for hiring, and test scores are worthless. … We found that they don\u2019t predict anything.\u201d\u009d He also noted that the \u201cproportion of people without any college education at Google has increased over time\u201d\u009d \u201d\u201d now as high as 14 percent on some teams. At a time when many people are asking, \u201cHow\u2019s my kid gonna get a job?\u201d\u009d I thought it would be useful to visit Google and hear how Bock would answer.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t get him wrong, Bock begins, \u201cGood grades certainly don\u2019t hurt.\u201d\u009d Many jobs at Google require math, computing and coding skills, so if your good grades truly reflect skills in those areas that you can apply, it would be an advantage. But Google has its eyes on much more.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are five hiring attributes we have across the company,\u201d\u009d explained Bock. \u201cIf it\u2019s a technical role, we assess your coding ability, and half the roles in the company are technical roles. For every job, though, the No. 1 thing we look for is general cognitive ability, and it\u2019s not I.Q. It\u2019s learning ability. It\u2019s the ability to process on the fly. It\u2019s the ability to pull together disparate bits of information. We assess that using structured behavioral interviews that we validate to make sure they\u2019re predictive.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n